Meta-analysis of the impact of stocking rate on the productivity of pasture-based milk production systems

Egypt is one of the hottest countries in the world, and extreme climate events are becoming more frequent, which is consistent with the warming of the planet. The impact of this warming on ecosystems is severe, including on livestock production systems. Under Egyptian conditions, livestock already suffer heat stress periods in summer. The predicted increases in temperature as result of climate change will affect livestock production by reducing growth and milk production because of appetite suppression and conception rate reductions and will increase animal welfare concerns. In severe cases, these effects can result in death. We review the heat stress effects on livestock behaviour, reproduction, and production in the context of predicted climate change for Egypt over the course of this century and offer alternative scenarios to achieve food security for a growing human population. As an example, we combine predictions for reduced milk production during heat stress and human population trajectories to predict that milk availability per person will decline from 61 kg/year in 2011 to 26 kg/year in 2064. Mitigation strategies are discussed and include the substitution of animal-based foods for plant-based foods and laboratory-grown animal products.

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A decade of evolving composites: regression- and meta-analysis

Journal of Forensic Practice ◽

10.1108/jfp-08-2014-0025 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 17 (4) ◽

pp. 319-334 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Charlie D. Frowd ◽

William B. Erickson ◽

James M. Lampinen ◽

Faye C. Skelton ◽

Alex H. McIntyre ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Production Systems ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Cognitive Interview ◽

Experimental Conditions ◽

Content Type ◽

Forensic Research ◽

The Face ◽

Meta Analyses ◽

The Impact ◽

Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of seven variables that emerge from forensic research on facial-composite construction and naming using contemporary police systems: EvoFIT, Feature and Sketch. Design/methodology/approach – The paper involves regression- and meta-analyses on composite-naming data from 23 studies that have followed procedures used by police practitioners for forensic face construction. The corpus for analyses contains 6,464 individual naming responses from 1,069 participants in 41 experimental conditions. Findings – The analyses reveal that composites constructed from the holistic EvoFIT system were over four-times more identifiable than composites from “Feature” (E-FIT and PRO-fit) and Sketch systems; Sketch was somewhat more effective than Feature systems. EvoFIT was more effective when internal features were created before rather than after selecting hair and the other (blurred) external features. Adding questions about the global appearance of the face (as part of the holistic-cognitive interview (H-CI)) gives a valuable improvement in naming over the standard face-recall cognitive interview (CI) for all three system types tested. The analysis also confirmed that composites were considerably less effective when constructed from a long (one to two days) compared with a short (0-3.5 hours) retention interval. Practical implications – Variables were assessed that are of importance to forensic practitioners who construct composites with witnesses and victims of crime. Originality/value – Using a large corpus of forensically-relevant data, the main result is that EvoFIT using the internal-features method of construction is superior; an H-CI administered prior to face construction is also advantageous (cf. face-recall CI) for EvoFIT as well as for two further contrasting production systems.

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Increasing milk production from forage: production systems and extension service preferences of the northern Australian dairy industry

Animal Production Science ◽

10.1071/an09228 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 50 (7) ◽

pp. 705 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

R. G. Chataway ◽

D. G. Barber ◽

M. N. Callow

Keyword(s):

Milk Production ◽

Management Practices ◽

Production Systems ◽

Herd Size ◽

Extension Service ◽

Land Resource ◽

Stocking Rate ◽

Forage Production ◽

Resource Base ◽

Enterprise Size

Dairy farms in Queensland were stratified by six regions, three levels of enterprise size (0.25–0.69, 0.7–1.39 or >1.4 ML milk/year) and two rainfall zones (<1000 and >1000 mm/year). Thirteen percent of farmers (89 farms) were surveyed using a prepared questionnaire to ascertain the current production systems, forage management practices and preferences for extension services. Herd size, dairy area, milk production per cow, the use of cropping, pit silage, concentrate input and irrigation input all increased (P < 0.05) with larger enterprises. At the same time the stocking rate on high milk volume farms was almost twice that on smaller farms. The drier zone (<1000 mm/year) was associated with lower stocking rate, higher per cow production and a greater emphasis on cropping and feedpad usage (P < 0.05). The importance of enterprise growth through intensification of the existing farm land resource base is indicated through these findings. Apart from ration formulation, processes used to manage cropping land, irrigation and grazing were primarily based on tradition or intuition. In valuing extension activities, farmers across all enterprise sizes were in general agreement that information products warranted only a small investment. As enterprise size increased, a more individualised and focussed extension service, delivered through targeted discussion groups and personal coaches was favoured.

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Meta-analysis and sustainability of feeding slow-release urea in dairy production

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0246922 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. e0246922

Author(s):

Saheed A. Salami ◽

Colm A. Moran ◽

Helen E. Warren ◽

Jules Taylor-Pickard

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cows ◽

Milk Production ◽

Milk Yield ◽

Feed Efficiency ◽

Slow Release ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Production Performance ◽

Dairy Production ◽

Slow Release Urea ◽

The Impact

Slow-release urea (SRU) is a coated non-protein nitrogen (NPN) source for providing rumen degradable protein in ruminant nutrition. A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the effects of replacing vegetable protein sources with SRU (Optigen®, Alltech Inc., USA) on the production performance of dairy cows. Additionally, the impact of SRU supplementation on dairy sustainability was examined by quantifying the carbon footprint (CFP) of feed use for milk production and manure nitrogen (N) excretion of dairy cows. Data on diet composition and performance variables were extracted from 17 experiments with 44 dietary comparisons (control vs. SRU). A linear mixed model and linear regression were applied to statistically analyse the effect of SRU on feed intake and production performance. Feeding SRU decreased (P < 0.05) dry matter intake (DMI, -500 g/d) and N intake (NI, -20 g/d). There was no significant effect (P > 0.05) on milk yield, fat-corrected milk, energy-corrected milk, and milk fat and protein composition. However, SRU supplementation improved (P < 0.05) feed efficiency (+3%) and N use efficiency (NUE, +4%). Regression analyses revealed that increasing SRU inclusion level decreased DMI and NI whereas increasing dietary crude protein (CP) increased both parameters. However, milk yield and feed efficiency increased in response to increasing levels of SRU inclusion and dietary CP. The NUE had a positive relationship with SRU level whereas NUE decreased with increasing dietary CP. The inclusion of SRU in dairy diets reduced the CFP of feed use for milk production (-14.5%; 373.13 vs. 319.15 g CO2 equivalent/kg milk). Moreover, feeding SRU decreased manure N excretion by 2.7% to 3.1% (-12 to -13 g/cow/d) and N excretion intensity by 3.6% to 4.0% (-0.50 to -0.53 g N/kg milk). In conclusion, feeding SRU can contribute to sustainable dairy production through improvement in production efficiency and reduction in environmental impacts.

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The influence of liver fluke infection on production in sheep and cattle: a meta-analysis

10.1101/2020.07.29.227074 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Adam D. Hayward ◽

Philip J. Skuce ◽

Tom N. McNeilly

Keyword(s):

Weight Gain ◽

Milk Production ◽

Study Design ◽

Liver Fluke ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Live Weight ◽

Daily Weight Gain ◽

Total Weight Gain ◽

Fluke Infection ◽

The Impact

ABSTRACTLiver flukes (Fasciola spp) are important parasites of sheep and cattle across the world, causing significant damage to animal health and productivity due to both acute and chronic infection. Many comprehensive reviews have discussed the results of decades of research into the impact of fluke infection on livestock performance traits such as weight gain and milk production. While fluke are considered to be important, there have been no attempts to collate previous research in a quantitative manner, and nor has there been an attempt to determine why some studies find substantial effects of fluke while others conclude that effects of fluke on animal performance are negligible. In this study, we used meta-analysis to provide quantitative estimates of the impact of liver fluke on animal performance, and to identify elements of study design that influence the conclusions of such studies. A literature search provided 233 comparisons of performance in “fluke-infected” and “uninfected” animals. We standardized these data as log response ratios and calculated effect size variances in order to weight studies by their sample size and accuracy of their estimates. We performed multi-level meta-analysis to estimate effects of fluke infection in five traits: daily weight gain (N = 77); live weight (N = 47); carcass weight (N = 84); total weight gain (N = 18) and milk production (N = 6). There were significant negative effects of fluke infection on daily weight gain, live weight and carcass weight (9%, 6% and 0.6% reductions in performance, respectively), but not total weight gain or milk production. We then used mixed-effects meta-analysis to estimate the impact of moderator variables, including host, fluke, and study design factors, on study outcomes. We found that, in general, studies that gave experimental infections found generally larger effects of fluke than observational or drug studies; younger animals were more likely to suffer the effects of fluke infection on daily weight gain; and that effects on live weight increased across the course of an experiment. Our results provide the first quantitative estimate of the importance of liver fluke on performance across studies and highlight the elements of study design that can influence conclusions. Furthermore, our literature search revealed areas of research into liver fluke that could be the subject of greater effort, and types of study that could form the basis of future meta-analyses.

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Seasonal Variations and its Impacts on Livestock Production Systems with a Special Reference to Dairy Animals: An Appraisal

Veterinary Science Research ◽

10.30564/vsr.v2i2.2624 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Jyotsnarani Biswal ◽

Kennady Vijayalakshmy ◽

Habibar Rahman

Keyword(s):

Heat Stress ◽

Milk Production ◽

Environmental Temperature ◽

Production Systems ◽

Disease Incidence ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Livestock Production ◽

Special Focus ◽

Dairy Animals ◽

The Impact

Seasonal climatic variations is one of the most important environmental issue at present, the devastating impact of which is visualized on the ecology, ecosystem and species survival. The livestock sector, that has been the source of animal protein for ever-increasing human masses, is subjected to the increased environmental temperature and higher frequency of extreme events. The impact of high degree of heat stress is found to have a direct bearing on the milk production, growth, feed intake, reproductive efficiency and disease incidence of the animals. The environmental temperature above the thermo-neutral zone of the animals has not only been adversely affecting the productivity and survival in the intensive livestock production systems, but the impact is equally seen in the extensive systems. Besides reduced milk production and change in composition, the impact of heat stress on dairy animals in general can be seen from the reduction of sperm quantity and quality in case of male and marked decline in the fertility and embryo quality in case of females. The paper analyses varied aspects of climate change impacts on production, productivity, reproduction and health of livestock, with special focus on dairy animals.

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